Reports have come out saying that Lance Armstrong has admitted to Oprah in a tell-all interview that he admitted to doping. Seemingly overnight Armstrong went from one of the most beloved athletes in the world, to the most despised. But now that the dust has settled, the medals have been taken away and guilt admitted…do you even care?
This has been a saga raging on from years. Mere whispers of Armstrong’s then ‘alleged’ doping gradually became louder and louder, until his world began to collapse. Armstrong may have permanently sullied the reputation of the LiveStrong foundation, and his once harrowing and inspiring tale of beating the odds is now just one giant farce. But again, should we care?
In a notoriously dirty sport like cycling, where more than half involved have used a banned substance of some sort should this even come as a shock? Are we such staunch moralists that we have to fit people into two rigid boxes–good and evil, and if you doped, or used steroids everything you stood for gets automatically thrown out the window? And I must ask, with the work Armstrong’s done for cancer research, should doping be an after thought?
We’re a nation of forgivers, due to the short memories we have in a constantly changing world. So if we could forgive the likes of cheating presidents, loathsome celebrities and everyone in between why must we banish Lance Armstrong? I’m neutral in any regard, I choose not to care only because the story doesn’t shock me–I think we the people chose to ignore the proof because we fell in love. Lance just seems to be another fallen from grace story, that years from now will have people wondering why they were so mad in the first place.
Whether you choose to put import on Armstrong’s PED admission or not, what I think we can all agree on is the cover-up aspect. Lance ran away from accusations for years, and defiantly too, now he chooses to go the ultra-sleazy route and cry on primetime tv admitting to something he could’ve admitted months ago? See, that’s what I believe should piss people off, not so much the fact he did steroids, but the ‘pity me’ act he’s putting on afterwards.
So again, I must ask: do you care?
